Man arrested for stabbing 7-year-old girl to death in 2005

A 32-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a 7-year-old girl back in 2005, according to the Tochigi Prefectural police. Takuya Katsumata was being questioned over a separate incident of selling fake goods back in January but in the course of his interrogation, he admitted to being involved in the young girl’s murder.

According to police officers, he said that “there is no doubt” that he killed Yuki Yoshida, with forensic evidence showing that she was stabbed around 10 times. The first-grader went missing back in December 2005 as her parents reported that she failed to come home from Osawa Elementary School in Imaichi. Her naked body was found the day after in a forest that was 65 kilometers away from where she was last seen. Katsumata was a suspect early on as his car was spotted near the area where Yuki disappeared. However, they were not able to find strong evidence to link him to the murder and so police were unable to arrest him.

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Nine years later, on January 29 this year, he was arrested for having in his possession fake brand items and a month later, he and his mother were indicted and are currently awaiting their trial dates. But last April, he started giving hints that he was involved in the girl’s murder that was still unsolved by then. Police decided to arrest him when they found a picture of a girl who looked like Yuki on his computer, along with images of other young girls. He told police later on that he killed her and then threw away the girl’s clothes and her satchel. Investigators have not been able to find out why he killed the girl, but he said that he is sorry for having committed the crime.

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